to think there is many people out there who need disability awareness training......

[devilishmangerdanger]

including some who you think may touch upon the subject, such as religious groups etc?

No it's still not just that, today I was not pissed and we were not being asked but still what was said showed no understanding at all.

Double don't give up. Write to the vicar, write to the bishop, write to your MP, call the local paper, take them to court under the DDA.

This sort of thing makes me sick. I recall lots of instances like this with my severely disabled dad in the 70s and 80s and it's a crying shame it's still happening.

Great post Double

yanbu

the trouble with things like the Paralympics is that is didn't really imo show disability for the average person.
my dd is disabled. her disability is "visible" as she is in a wheelchair.
she is not like everyone else. there is no use pretending she is. inclusion does not work for young people like her as they can't access the NT world with out a lot of help.
so people who mix with young people like her (and the op's ds) need to know how to act.

Yes a bit of the old empathy litmus test with that question

'Would I be pissed if someone said, asked that of myself or any member of my family?'

You are all being very lovely btw thank you, sorry for whining on this thread, it was just timely as getting myself all tearful cos of Christmas

It can be the little things that really get to you - someone parking across the only dropped curb so you can't get off the pavement, aisles in shops blocked with promotional goods, people who tut because a five-year-old is in a SN pushchair and of course the 'ignore the person with disabilities and speak to the person with them' issue.

Double it is shocking that the church won't help you. Ours was fantastic when my Dad was alive. They had a rota and someone picked him up and took him to Church every Sunday. When he was in hospital someone from the Church took my mum and me to visit him everyday, until I was old enough to learn to drive.

Double, if you didn't moan about things sometimes you'd be on the news for going on a mad rampage, I know I would

Double you are not whining and it's understandable how the situation is making you feel. Please take the advice of OHLittle

Something good hopefully out of some disability awareness.

Things like parking on a dropped kerb just don't cross people's radar until it's brought to their attention. Until someone mentioned it on here, I never thought about making sure to leave at least enough space for a double buggy to pass by when parking on a crowded road/pavement. That makes me sound like a horrible, self-absorbed person and I am, a bit, as is pretty much everyone else. Most people don't set out to be thoughtless or to ruin someone's day, they just need to be told something once.

I think that is exactly it SSP. You and I may not know things and need to be told just once but to somebody who may have had to tell others already and deal with that scenario several times already, it must be hard to keep being polite and patient.

That is why we end up with these bunfights at times because what, to us, is a one-off situation, to somebody else may be a regular infuriating problem.

I, as a permanent wheelchair user, think it's a terrible idea. I don't want people to be aware of my disability, I want them to be aware of me and to see me as a person, not a pet project that they have 'studied' at a seminar. It drives me beyond bonkerdom that people (usually able-bodied) think that I have the time or inclination to be offended at the daft shit people say about disability-- have a family and a job.

this as a walking disabled person I havnt time to be offended

just treat people as human beings no training needed I dont want people having seminars about my disability knowing the ins and outs just treat people the way you would like to be treated and you are there, I am a normal person who happens to walk a bit 'funny' and has other health problems I have a life job had babies and managed to live my life fine without people being 'aware' if i need people to be aware of anything I will tell them

Double, do you not have 'Ring and Ride' in your area ? - it's extremely busy around here on a Sunday morning. I also have to say I think your problems about physically getting to church must be the exception rather than the rule. All Churches I know of have many, many good folk who set off on a tour of collecting people on their way to church.

I work with a charity that is aimed at helping disabled people access something they would not otherwise be able to. The charity recently paid for the able bodied volunteers to do disability awareness training with another charity.

In all honesty, I thought that the training was close to useless. We had a good laugh doing obstacle courses in wheelchairs and other such tasks, but I really don't think it taught me or any of the other volunteers anything that we weren't already aware of, not least because half an hour spend messing around in a wheelchair cant actually tell you what it is like to have to use a wheelchair permanently.

There are far too many disabilities with far too many variations that you could ever cover all of them on a days worth of expensive course.

I don't know what it's like to be disabled, I can try to understand issues that a disabled person may have to face, but I'm never going to fully get it unless it happens to me. The disabled people I work with have been consulted about how we could improve our service further and be more aware of their difficulties. The overwhelming response was that we just need to be willing to help where we can, be friendly and kind, but most importantly, just LISTEN to what they say they need help with and then respond to that.

There is nothing worse than someone doing disability training and then trying to tell a disabled person that they know what the person needs more than they do. (Hope that makes sense).

That post is very badly written, sorry!

There are far too many disabilities with far too many variations that you could ever cover all of them on a days worth of expensive course.

this 1 course can't possibly fit all, even types of the same disability is different

There is nothing worse than someone doing disability training and then trying to tell a disabled person that they know what the person needs more than they do. (Hope that makes sense).

Yeah it did

A woman from the Housing Association told me I should be able to move house immediately because she knows someone who is 'fully disabled', who did.
I was beyond furious.
I think she thinks there's nothing wrong with me, because she can't see it.
She may well have said 'You're faking and the fully disabled guy is a vegetable', it's clearly what she meant

Exactly Jingle!

It would be wonderful if everyone were more aware of the difficulties others face through disability, but I don't think anyone can ever understand everything there is to know.

I think the people that would be willing to take training would be the people that least need it, and even then, they need to know that they will have barely scratched the surface of disability issues.

I would really like some disability training. If you have no direct experience of disabilities, it can be easy to just not be aware. Especially for non-visible disabilities. Does anyone know if any such topics are covered in PSHE these days?

Michael macyntre (spelling) does a sketch about disabled parking and people moaning about who uses the space then he says what do people expect the disabled person to just fall out of the car

A woman from the Housing Association told me I should be able to move house immediately because she knows someone who is 'fully disabled', who did.

Fully disabled

I asked the school if they could maybe reserve me a chair on the end of an aisle so I could stretch my legs out, and put my crutches out of the way safely, when i went to presentation evening. I, also, said it would be nice if they could let me have a more comfy staff chair. They allowed me the end of aisle seat,but not a comfy chair as it wouldn't be fair on the other (able bodied) parents!

In their policy about how they treat disabled people it says they have bought an orthopaedic chair for use in the staff room incase any staff member is suffering from back pain!. But their attitude is bollocks to the parents who's back and pelvis is held together with plates, pins, screws, nuts and bolts!

I think there are definitely a lot of people who could do with some disability awareness training!

It seems like the quality of the training available at the moment is very variable.

The seminar I sat in on wasn't a catalogue of disabilities and what those people can/can't do, it was encouraging people to look at the environment around them with a fresh set of eyes. Specific disabilities and conditions were mentioned only in passing. For example, one example I remember was a toddler group putting up posters and notices. We discussed things like using clear fonts on posters and displaying more than one contact method and advertising via more than one medium (eg. posters and web). No mention of accessible WCs etc. The idea was to make it possible for people to contact you and discuss any specific needs they may have and make sure it was promoted in such a way that all who could benefit from it would be likely to find out about it. I remember this example specifically as I run a toddler group at the moment!

Jingle, you should have asked her where her Nobel Prize is then, because you know someone "fully abled" who got one